What is World AIDS Day?

World AIDS Day is held on 1 December each year and is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died. World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day, first held 26 years ago in 1988.

National Overview

• Currently, 1.1 million people are living with HIV in the United States (an estimated 1,144,500 adults and adolescents), and nearly one in six of those (16 percent) are unaware of their infections.

• Despite increases in the total number of people living with HIV in the United States in recent years, the annual number of new infections has remained relatively stable overall.

• However, HIV infections continue at far too high a level, with approximately 50,000 Americans becoming newly infected with HIV each year.

• More than 15,000 people with AIDS still die each year in the United States.

Heavily Affected Populations

By Route of Transmission

Men Who Have Sex With Men (MSM)

By risk group, gay and bisexual men of all races remain the population most severely impacted by HIV:

• MSM represent just 2 percent of the U.S. population, but account for 63 percent of all new HIV infections in the United States each year, as well as more than half of people living with HIV (52 percent).

• The number of new infections among the youngest MSM (aged 13–24) increased 22 percent, from 7,200 infections in 2008 to 8,800 in 2010. Young black MSM continue to bear the heaviest burden, accounting for more than half (55 percent) of new infections among young MSM (4,800).

• White MSM account for the largest number of annual new HIV infections of any group in the United States, followed by black MSM and Hispanic MSM.

• The rate of new HIV diagnoses among MSM in the United States is more than 44 times that of other men (range: 522–989 per 100,000 MSM vs. 12 per 100,000 other men), and more than 40 times that of women (13 per 100,000 women).

Heterosexuals and Injection Drug Users:

Heterosexuals and injection drug users also continue to be affected by HIV:

• Individuals infected through heterosexual contact account for 25 percent of annual new HIV infections and 26 percent of people living with HIV.

• Injection drug users represent 8 percent of annual new HIV infections and 16 percent of those living with HIV.

By Race/Ethnicity

African Americans:

Among racial/ethnic groups, African Americans face the most severe burden of HIV and AIDS in the nation:

• While blacks represent approximately 14 percent of the U.S. population, the latest CDC estimates show that they account for almost half of all new infections in the United States each year (44 percent) as well as almost half of all people living with HIV (44 percent).

• At some point in their lives, approximately one in 16 black men will be diagnosed with HIV, as will one in 32 black women.

• The rate of new HIV infections for black men is more than six times as high as that of white men, and more than two times that of Hispanic men and of black women.

• Comparing 2008 to 2010, new HIV infections among black women decreased 21 percent (from 7,700 to 6,100); however, black women account for the vast majority (64 percent) of all new infections among women overall and the HIV incidence rate for black women remains 20 times as high as that of white women, and almost five times that of Hispanic women.

• HIV infections among blacks overall have been roughly stable in recent years.

Latinos:

Latinos are also disproportionately impacted:

• Hispanics represent approximately 17 percent of the population and the latest CDC estimates show that they account for 19 percent of people living with HIV in the United States, as well as 21 percent of new infections each year.

• A t some point in their lives, approximately one in 36 Hispanic men will be diagnosed with HIV, as will one in 106 Hispanic women.

• The rate of new HIV infections among Hispanic men is almost three times that of white men, and the rate among Hispanic women is more than four times that of white women.
• HIV infections among Hispanics overall have been roughly stable in recent years.

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